Life with Frida

Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo were married twice
during their love affair, which included numerous
outside affairs from both parties. Regardless
of this, Frida Kahlo was Diego Rivera’s
one true love through everything.

The first encounter between the two soul mates
occurred in 1922. Rivera, at the age of 36,
already a much celebrated artist, was painting
his first mural in the amphitheater of the National
Preparatory School. Kahlo, part Jewish, part
German, part Spanish and part Indian, was a
student at the school who watched the artist
with much interest. At the young age of 15,
she knew what she wanted; she confided in a
friend “my ambition is to have a child
by Diego Rivera. And I am going to tell him
someday.”

Kahlo did her best to get Rivera’s attention,
including taunting him, playing pranks, and
calling him names like “old fatso.”
She also tried to insult one of his models,
Guadalupe Marin, whom he was courting at the
time. But, Marin became Rivera’s second
wife and bearer of his two daughters. Meanwhile,
Kahlo was involved in a horrific car accident
in which her spine, pelvis, collarbone, and
right leg were broken and her right foot was
crushed. For several months she was confined
to a body cast and spent her time in the hospital
honing her art skills.

After several years, Kahlo regained her mobility
and tracked down Rivera working at the Ministry
of Education. She asked him to critique a painting
she brought with her to show him; she wanted
to know if he thought she could earn a living
as an artist. At this time, Rivera was divorced
from Guadalupe Marin and became attracted to
Kahlo. They were soul mates on several levels,
from art to their political interest in Communism.
A few days after her first visit, they had their
first kiss.

Kahlo’s father had observed the lovers
silently, and with a partial blessing, Rivera,
42, and Kahlo, 22, were married for the first
time on August 21, 1929. In 1939, the couple
separated but were quickly reunited after a
year apart. They remarried in a civil ceremony
on December 8, 1940, on Diego’s 54th birthday.

Unfortunately, Kahlo’s ambition to have
a child with Diego never came to be. She suffered
one miscarriage and had an abortion due to the
position of the fetus. Rivera continued his
lifelong habit of extramarital affairs in which
Kahlo simply looked the other way. She too,
however, had a number of affairs with both men
and women, including Leon Trotsky.

Kahlo’s last public appearance came in
1954 as she and Rivera participated in a demonstration
protesting CIA involvement in the ouster of
Guatemalan president. On July 13, 1954, Frida
Kahlo died at the age of 47.

Rivera and Kahlo’s
relationship had begun
with art and continued
to flourish with the
art that brought them
together.